First progress report outlines strategy, initial outcomes

Strategies to End Homelessness on Wednesday released its first annual progress report
detailing how the organization intends to reduce homelessness
in Hamilton County by half from 2012 to 2017. That means reducing the
county’s homeless population of more than 7,000 to roughly 3,500 in five
years.

The plan doesn’t focus on providing shelter services to the
needy; instead, Strategies to End Homelessness is advocating tactics
that prevent homelessness entirely and attempt to permanently address
the issue.

The main strategies, according to the report: prevention,
rapid rehousing that lasts six to 12 months, transitional housing for up
to 24 months and permanent supportive housing that targets the
chronically homeless and disabled.

For the organization, the goal is to reduce
homelessness by using supportive services to get to the root of the issue, whether it’s joblessness, mental health problems or other causes, and ensure shelter services
aren’t necessary in the first place.

“Of the various types of programs within our homeless
services system, households served in prevention were least likely to
become homeless within the next 24 months,” the report reads. “Among
supportive housing programs, Rapid Rehousing programs cost less, serve
households for significantly shorter periods of time, and have increased
long-term success compared to other supportive housing program types.”

The cost savings get to the major argument repeatedly
raised by homeless advocates: If society helps transition its homeless
population to jobs and permanent housing, governments will see savings and new
revenue as less money is put toward social services and the homeless
become productive economic actors who pay taxes.

Prevention in particular had particularly strong financial
results, according to the Strategies to End Homelessness report: “In
2012, the estimated average cost per person served in homelessness
prevention was $787, which is 60 (percent) less than the estimated cost
of $1,322 per person served in an emergency shelter.”

Meanwhile, permanent supportive housing topped the list of costs, coming in at an average of $6,049 per person.

Despite the ambitious goals and promising results, the
group’s prevention program has run into some problems. The federal
government never renewed temporary federal stimulus funding that was
financing a bulk of the prevention program, which cut off a major source
of money starting in July 2012. Strategies to End Homelessness managed
to pick up funding later in the year through the federal Emergency
Solutions Grant, but the financial support is much more modest,
according to the report.

Still, Strategies to End Homelessness appears undeterred.
The report claims 78 percent of shelter residents transitioned to
housing in 2012. The organization intends to continue prioritizing its
resources to achieve similar sustainable outcomes in the next few years.

Strategies to End Homelessness is a collaborative that
pools local homeless agencies, including the Drop Inn Center, Lighthouse
Youth Services and the Talbert House, to tackle homelessness with a
less redundant, more unified strategy.

In 2009, City Council and Hamilton County commissioners
approved the organization’s Homeless to Homes Plan to “ensure that
homeless people receive high-quality emergency shelter with
comprehensive services to assist them out of homelessness.”

Independent mediator will work with supporters and opposition

The controversial proposed supportive housing facility
for Alaska Avenue in Avondale was the main subject of a heated session
of City Council's Budget and Finance Committee today, which resulted in the committee's decision to put the project on hold for two weeks. The committee also announced its intent to allocate $5,000 for an independent mediator, which the city administration will be responsible for finding.

A slew of Avondale community members spoke out in opposition of
the project, while representatives from National Church Residences (NCR),Josh Spring of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition and Kevin Finn of Strategies to End Homelessness were some of those who publicly expressed support for the project. Many in opposition articulated concern that predominantly poor blackneighborhoods such as Avondale are "targeted" for low-income housing projects like these, while supporters insist a spread of misinformation is largely responsible for the tensionand that the complex is a necessary step in moving forward with the city's 2008 Homeless to Homes Plan, which explicitly cited NCR as the well-regarded nonprofit developer and manager of supportive housing facilities commissioned to bring a permanent supportive housing facility to the city.

The proposed project, coined Commons at Alaska, would be a 99-unit facilityproviding residency and supportive services to the area homeless population, particularly those with with severe mental health issues, physical disabilities and histories of alcohol and substance abuse. The project, which gained City Council's official support in February, has recently come under scrutiny from community group Avondale 29, Alaska Avenue residents and other community stakeholders who are fervently expressing public distaste for the facility, which they worry will threaten the safety and revitalization efforts in the neighborhood. CityBeat covered the controversy here.

Councilman Smitherman, who originally voted against Council's support for the project in February, vocally expressed his opposition, and later, Councilman Winburn rescinded his support for the project.

"It appears that maximum citizen participation did not happen... you are having hundreds of people who are not ready yet for this project. So something went wrong somewhere," he said.

Winburn was also the one to announce the motion that asked council to suspend the project for two weeks.

Both sides are expected to once again go in front of the Budget & Finance Committee on a Sept. 30 meeting.

Commons at Alaska in Avondale snared by controversy

A City Council committee on Tuesday voted to rescind
council’s support for state tax credits going to a 99-unit supportive
housing facility in Avondale that would aid chronically homeless,
disabled and low-income individuals.

But since National Church Residences already obtained tax credits for the project from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in June, it’s possible the project could continue even if council stands in opposition, according to Kevin Finn, executive director of Strategies to End Homelessness.

Still, the decision from the Economic Growth and Infrastructure
Committee comes in the middle of a months-long controversy that
has placed neighborhood activists and homeless advocates in a heated
dispute. (CityBeat first covered the issue in greater detail here.)

Independent Christopher Smitherman and Republican Amy
Murray, the two present members of the committee, both voted to pull support from the project. The issue will now
go to a nine-member City Council, which consists of five Democrats, and
Democratic Mayor John Cranley.

Smitherman, chair of the committee, claimed the project’s issues spawned from a lack of community engagement.

“I want everybody to take a pause,” Smitherman said.
“Respecting our city, in my opinion, means that you do the community
engagement at the level that reflects the magnitude of what you want to
do.”

Smitherman’s comments followed testimony from neighborhood activists who oppose the facility and homeless advocates who support it.

Opponents insist they support policies addressing homelessness. But
they argue the “massive” facility would alter the neighborhood, worsen
Avondale’s problems with poverty and damage revitalization efforts.

Supporters claim the dispute stems from a not-in-my-backyard attitude that predominates so many supportive housing facilities.

“In our society, we have a tendency to say we don't want
‘those people’ in our neighborhoods. And history dictates to us that
conversations that start with ‘we don't want those people here’ don't
typically end well,” said Josh Spring, executive director of the Greater
Cincinnati Homeless Coalition.

Finn of Strategies to End Homelessness
said the facility is part of his organization’s Homeless to Homes plan, which council
previously approved to address Cincinnati’s struggles with homelessness.

The Avondale facility could also help reduce Cincinnati’s high levels of poverty. More than half of Cincinnati’s children and more than one-third of the city’s general population live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey.

The full body of City Council could take up the issue as early as Wednesday. Smitherman advised both sides to attend the council meeting and state their cases.

Updated with additional information from Kevin Finn, executive director of Strategies to End Homelessness.

Annual Hunger and Homeless Unity March to benefit Anna Louise Inn

This year, the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition's annual Hunger and Homeless Unity March will focus on an abundance of issues regarding the poor and homeless in our city.

Marching a route that highlights the path of homelessness, the walk will move through the southern portion of Over-the-Rhine, through the Central Business District and end in Lytle Park beside the Anna Louise Inn.

The Anna Louise Inn has been involved with a series of legal disputes with Western & Southern Financial Group as the corporation is on a mission to buy the Inn's property to expand their business. (CityBeat covered the issue in-depth in a Aug. 17 cover story, "Surrounded by Skyscrapers.")

For more than 100 years, the Anna Louise Inn has been serving local women in need. Located in Lytle Park, it is the only single-room occupancy residence for women in the city and acts as a safe harbor for women who have nowhere else to go. Former Anna Louise Inn resident Pam Franklin will speak about the importance of affordable housing at the event.

Not only will the march show support for social service agencies such as the Anna Louise Inn, it will be educational. Participants will learn about local residents being affected by gentrification, businesses suffering from displacement and the affects of foreclosure. Attendees will learn that in order for "new life" to enter, "existing life" does not have to leave.

"This will be a time to protest and to become more informed about the current injustices," says Josh Spring, the Executive Director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition.

Everyone is invited to participate in the march and learn about the affects of gentrification and displacement this Saturday.

"This really is an event for everyone — people that already are against gentrification, people that might be against gentrification, people that are for it, and people who don't know what gentrification is," Spring says. "Everyone will gain some truth from this experience."

Beginning at Buddy's Place at 1300 Vine Street, the march is from 12:45-3 p.m.

Grant will provide $600,000 for at-risk and homeless vets

Three homeless aid groups in Cincinnati are getting a bit
of help from the federal government. On Sept. 19, the Secretary of
Veteran Affairs announced it awarded nearly $600 million to homeless aid
groups around the United States, and three local organizations managed
to secure $600,000 of that funding.

The money will be awarded primarily to Ohio Valley
Goodwill Industries, but Goodwill has partnered up with Strategies to
End Homelessness and the Healing Center at Vineyard Community Church to
make full use of the money.

Kevin Finn, executive director of Strategies to End
Homelessness, says the money will help make up for stimulus funding that
was recently lost — at least in the case of military veterans.

“It’s going to go to helping veterans and their families
that are either at risk of becoming homeless or already homeless,” Finn
says.

That makes the grant funding different in two major ways:
First, the money can now be used to help veterans’ families, not just
veterans. Typically, aid to veterans is allocated in a way that can only
benefit veterans, but this money will help their husbands, wives and children.

Also, the money will also be used to help vets at risk
for homelessness instead of just vets who are already homeless. With the
traditional, limited funding, homeless aid groups can only reach out to
people who are already out in the streets; with this new funding, groups
like Strategies to End Homeless will be capable of taking preventative
measures that keep vets in a home.

The new funding, which Finn estimates will help about 200
families, will be divided between the local organizations so they can
each take on different roles. For Strategies to End Homelessness, that
mostly means working on short-term solutions for homeless or at-risk
vets.

“The biggest (services) will be rentals and financial
assistance to either get them to be stable in housing or keep them in
their housing and prevent them from becoming homeless,” Finn says.

After that, care will shift to Goodwill, which will
work on job training, job searching, tutoring, computer training and
other important tools to help keep vets employed and housed.

“If the financial support can keep them from being
homeless in the short term, then the services that the Goodwill case
manager will put in place will hopefully keep them from being homeless
in the long term,” Finn says.

To reach out to vets in need, the organizations will use current connections, street outreach programs and phone hotlines to make
sure the program reaches as many people as possible while staying
efficient. To Finn, one of the most important tasks of Strategies to
End Homelessness is to make sure no funding is wasted and the
organizations coordinated by Strategies to End Homelessness do not have
redundant programs.

Strangely enough, aid to vets has become a political issue
recently. Forty Republicans in the U.S. Senate recently blocked the
Veteran Jobs Corps Act, which would have funded job programs for
military veterans. Ohio Rep. Connie Pillich recently introduced a
resolution in the Ohio General Assembly to encourage U.S. Senate
Republicans to pass the bill.

Additional proposal would add $45,000 to winter shelter

A proposed city ordinance could add homeless people to groups protected by hate crime laws, making Cincinnati one of just three cities to do so. The proposal by Councilman Chris Seelbach could add up to 180 days in extra jail time for those convicted of crimes against people because they don't have homes.

“Homeless people are targeted because they’re vulnerable," Seelbach said during a news conference today in Washington Park, during which he also announced a proposal to add money for winter shelters. “This hopefully will send a message to everyone that even though homeless people may seem vulnerable and on the streets, their lives and their safety are just as important as every single person in Cincinnati we live and work with every day.”

Both proposals will need to be approved by Cincinnati City Council, but Seelbach says he's confident a majority of council will support them.

Six-hundred-thousand Americans experienced homelessness last year. One-fourth were children. Many are veterans. The National Coalition for the Homeless has been tracking homeless hate crimes since 2000. Over a four-year period starting in 2009, there were 1,437 attacks nationally and 357 deaths, according to a report from the coalition.

Currently, gender, sexual orientation, race, national origin and disability are protected under hate crime state and federal hate crime laws. Only two cities, including Cleveland, consider crimes against people because they are homeless to be hate crimes. Cincinnati would be the third if Seelbach’s proposal passes. Several states have committed to begin considering such violence hate crimes, including Alaska, California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island and Washington. Legislation has been introduced into the Ohio General Assembly multiple times proposing a similar move but has been voted down.

“It will hopefully send a message to our community that people experiencing homeless do matter and that the city takes this seriously,” said Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition Director Josh Spring. “Primarily young people, high school and college age, commit these crimes. And if they’re caught, their response to why they did it is, ‘Why does it matter? It’s just a homeless person. We’re just cleaning up the streets.’ We want the city to say it does matter.’”

Cincinnati has seen a number of incidents of violence against the homeless, and the Coalition here has worked for years to get such actions classified as hate crimes. Four years ago, Robert Mehan was beaten and nearly killed as he was walking on Walnut Street downtown. A young man picked Mehan up and slammed him into the ground. He then beat him with beer bottles. Mehan was in a coma and almost died.

In July, John Hensley, a 49-year-old staying at the Drop-Inn Center, was leaving for work cleaning Great American Ball Park when he was attacked from behind by Alexander Gaines, 19, Brandon Ziegler, 21 and a 17-year-old minor. The three punched, kicked and kneed Hensley for 15 minutes. They’re currently facing charges in Hamilton County courts.

“They didn’t say anything, they were laughing," Hensley told a reporter after the incident. "I feel I was targeted because I am a homeless guy leaving the Drop Inn Center at 4 in the morning and no one was around, they thought they could get away with it and they didn’t.”

While the classification of such violence as a hate crime may make those experiencing homelessness safer in the long term, Seelbach’s other proposal, which would add $45,000 in funding for the city’s winter shelter, will bring more immediate relief. That’s a big change from the situation in the past, advocates say.

“We’re extremely happy about the change over the last several years,” Spring says. “It was not that long ago that the winter shelter did not open until it was 9 degrees wind chill or lower.”

Last night, The Drop Inn Center in Over-the-Rhine housed 292 people, according to Arlene Nolan, the center’s director. The winter shelter opened Nov. 19 this year, much earlier than usual.

“We’ve been able to accommodate well over 30 percent more than our normal capacity,” Nolan said.

Increased funding for the winter shelter “is something that is critical in assuring that we meet our ultimate goal, which is to make sure no one freezes to death on the streets in Cincinnati during the winter,” said Kevin Finn, director of Strategies to End Homelessness.

More than 750 people used the county’s 11 shelters last night, according to Finn. That’s just part of the city’s homeless population — others are staying with other people they may or may not know or sleeping in camps around the city.

Family shelters in the city are receiving about a dozen calls a day, according to Spring, and can only accommodate about 20 percent of the families who need their services.

“There is no silver bullet to ending homelessness or preventing people from attacking people who are experiencing homelessness,” Seelbach said. “This is part of the solution. The other part is strategies to end homelessness and getting people who are experiencing homelessness back into a house. That takes everything from the Drop Inn Center to transitional housing to permanent supportive housing and everything in between.”

With a push from Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls and City Council approval, the Homeless to Homes plan is moving forward.
The shelter-moving plan, which was originally put together by
Strategies to End Homelessness, will use $37 million in loans to build
new shelters for the Drop Inn Center, City Gospel Mission and the YWCA.
But some homeless advocates have criticized the plan because it forces
them to move homeless shelters they don’t want to move. Josh Spring,
executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, says
the money could be spent better developing affordable housing and
creating jobs to help eliminate homelessness.

Just one day after President Barack Obama’s re-election, one left-leaning Ohio group was already making demands.
They want federal unemployment benefits renewed. The group’s research
director, supported by economic data, says the expiration of those
benefits could have bad repercussions for the unemployed and the federal
and state economies.

A state appeals court ruled today that the city of Cincinnati is allowed to reduce retirees’ health benefits.
The cuts in benefits are meant to shore up the city’s pension plan, but
retirees, including former City Clerk Sandy Sherman, filed a lawsuit arguing
the benefits can only be increased, not decreased. The case could still
move to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Hamilton County’s new Democratic sheriff, Jim Neil, is already making plans.
He says he favors alternative sentencing to deal with jail
overcrowding, and he wants to audit and restructure the sheriff
department’s budget to cut waste.

State Democrats and Republicans have an explanation for two incumbents losing in the Ohio Supreme Court: names.
On Democrat William O’Neill defeating Republican incumbent Robert Cupp,
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett said O’Neill won because
he has an Irish-American name. Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris
Redfern said, “Sharon Kennedy is a great ballot name. That’s why she
won.” Redfern says he will introduce legislation that will require party
affiliation to appear on the Ohio Supreme Court ballots.

Councilwoman Laure Quinlivan said the approval of Issue 4, which extends City Council terms to four years, will be good for local business. She argues “there’s a great business case to be made for having a more stable and reliable local government.”

Despite problems with staff and records, a report is calling changes to Ohio’s youth prisons system a model for the nation.
The report from a court-appointed monitor praised the Ohio Department
of Youth Services for reducing the number of offenders in secure
confinement and spreading services for youthful offenders around the
state. However, the report also points out staff shortages, inadequate
teachers and inconsistent medical records. Advocates for youthful
offenders claim the bad findings show a need for continued court
supervision.

There’s a new sheriff in town, and the old one is becoming a visiting judge.
Simon Leis, who served as sheriff for 25 years, is best known for going
after an allegedly obscene Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit and prosecuting
pornographer Larry Flynt. As visiting judge, he will take on cases other
judges are assigned but can’t get to due to full dockets.

An appeals court is allowing City Gospel Mission to move to Queensgate.
The special assistance shelter wants to move from its current
Over-the-Rhine property to Dalton Avenue, but businesses and property
owners at Queensgate oppose the relocation. In its opinion, the Ohio
First District Court of Appeals said opponents to the relocation “have
not raised any genuine issues of material fact in support of their
constitutional attack upon the notwithstanding ordinance in their
capacity as neighboring businesses and property owners.”

U.S. retailers did not have a good Christmas.
Holiday sales were at the lowest they’ve been since 2008. The
disappointing sales have forced retailers to offer big discounts in
hopes of selling excess inventory.

Former president George H.W. Bush is in intensive care “following a series of setbacks including a persistent fever,” according to his spokesperson.

The controversial permanent supportive housing facility proposed for a residential area of Avondale that caused outrage amongst Avondale community members took a small blow today when Cincinnati City Council members Pam Thomas and Charlie Winburn introduced a motion at a City Council meeting to rescind council's original support for the facility.

The proposed facility, Commons at Alaska, would be a 99-unit housing facility providing residency and supportive services to the area homeless population, particularly those with severe mental health issues, physical disabilities and histories of alcohol and substance abuse. CityBeat covered extensively the Avondale community's concerns about the location of the facility and how the project's developers felt the facilitywas misunderstood ("Home Invasion," issue of Sept. 4).

On Feb. 13, City Council offered its official support for the Commons at Alaska project in a resolution, a decision members of Avondale 29, the group formed to oppose the project, say was made without proper community outreach and neglect for proper considerations of the facility's effects on the already-blighted surrounding neighborhood. At that time, Christopher Smitherman and Cecil Thomas (before he resigned his position) were the only two members of council who did not vote to pass the resolution.

The motion reads: "When the resolution was heard by City Council, a small minority of the 18,000 members of the Avondale Community expressed their support for the development. Further, the North Avondale Community Council has voiced their opposition to the development. With this resolution, the majority of the community who are opposed to the development are being heard."

The developer, National Church Residences, is a well-respected developer and manager of housing facilities for the homeless nationwide. In June, the project received more than $1 million in tax credit financing from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which would allow NCR to move forward with building plans and eventually begin construction in summer 2014.

City Council's official support was originally cited in NCR's application to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which may have factored in to OHFA's decision to award the tax credits. The motion will be voted on in council's Budget and Finance Committeeon Monday, Sept. 16 at 1 p.m.

Higher revenues could help restore funding to human services and parks

City Council could partly or totally undo the latest budget cuts to human services, parks and other areas by using higher-than-expected revenues from the previous budget cycle, Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls announced today.

When City Council passed the budget in May, it was unclear how much revenue would be left over from fiscal year 2013, which ended June 30. Now, revenues are expected to come in higher than originally projected.

The full revenue numbers should be released next week, allowing City Council to evaluate its options for what and how much can be restored.

Human services was cut by about $500,000 in the last budget, putting the program at $1.1 million. Funding to parks was also reduced by $1 million down to $7 million.

But the funding could be restored, at least in part, within a month, Qualls said.

Qualls and other city officials previously told CityBeat they intended to restore human services funding and other cut programs with higher-than-expected revenues and perhaps the parking lease, but Qualls' announcement today was the clearest indication that it's actually happening.

The vice mayor made the announcement at a mayoral forum hosted by the Human Services Chamber of Hamilton County, which consists of various local social service groups. Qualls, who's running for mayor this year, was speaking at the event with John Cranley, who's also running for mayor.

Human services funding flows through several local agencies that focus on providing aid to the homeless and poor. Programs include sheltering, job training and drug rehabilitation.

Cincinnati has historically set a goal of dedicating 1.5 percent of its operating budget to human services, but only 0.3 percent of the latest budget went to the program.